When Heroes Fall: Doug Wright’s I Am My Own Wife and the Challenge to Truth

Abstract

In so many senses of the word, the opening of I Am My Own Wife on Broadway in 2003 was an event.¹ A long run of performances led to award after award including the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, Tony Awards for Best Play and Best Actor, Drama Desk Awards, Lucille Lortel Awards, and Obie Awards. The play tells the story of Charlotte von Mahlsdorf, a male-to-female transvestite in East Berlin. Not only did she survive Nazi and Communist rule while living as a biological man in woman’s clothing but, after reunification, Germany also awarded her the Medal of Honor for the years she spent preserving furniture and other artefacts in the decades following the Second World War, transforming her home into an unofficial museum. The play’s style is as distinctive as its content, for the script features dialogue from over 30 characters but only one actor performs each of those roles.